Returning for its 24th edition, Resolution! is at The Place from Tue 8 January to Friday 15 February, showcasing the work of 81 dance companies in nightly triple bills, in the biggest festival for new dance in the UK.

What makes Resolution! one of the best loved seasons for short new dance is the sheer quantity and diversity of the pieces included: over the course of 27 nights, emerging choreographers will have the chance to present their new productions on the Robin Howard Dance Theatre’s stage, following the steps of Wayne McGregor, Hofesh Shechter, Kate Prince, and more recently James Wilton, James Cousins, and Nina Kov (Place Prize Semi-Finalist 2012), just to name a few dance artists who have started out their choreographic career during Resolution! The festival, which was created in 1990 by The Place’s former Theatre Director John Ashford, is one of the main platforms in the UK facilitating the difficult transition from vocational dance training to the professional performance world.

Among this year’s 81 participants, performers currently dancing with some of the UK’s best dance companies, as well as renowned independent dance artists, will take the stage. Some of the artists involved are; Wayne McGregor | Random Dance’s Paolo Mangiola and Benjamin Ord will present Take me home and make me like it (Fri 18 Jan); Victoria Hoyland (who danced most recently for Place Prize Finalist Riccardo Buscarini) and Karima El Amrani (Hofesh Shechter Company) will present together We’re made of stories. Secrets are safe in stories (Tue 22 Jan); Nathan Goodman, of Richard Alston Dance Company, presents Elsewhere (Fri 25 January); and Ivan Blackstock of Birdgang, takes to the stage with Reverie (Fri 8 Feb).

For full listings visit: https://www.theplace.org.uk/634/whats-on/listings.html

Autosport International is the day out for automotive enthusiasts. Birmingham’s NEC will host a full programme of action on 12-13 January, with the very best of motorsport and high-performance motoring under one roof. Including cars and stars from the world of Formula One, some of motorsport’s biggest names and fastest cars will be there, along with road going supercars and live action in the UK's largest indoor race arena, all from just £31. For more information, visit www.autosportinternational.com

Visitors to FACT will be able to trigger a personal light and sound show with electric sparks, interact with the dramatic charges from Tesla coils, and explore the mysteries of the Wilberforce pendulum, with work from four exciting international new media artists being seen in the UK for the first time.

The idea behind Winter Sparks is to turn away from the traditional understanding of the art gallery as a contemplative and over-cerebral space, instead seeking to engage visitors on a journey through impressive large-scale reactive installations. The selection of works will take over FACT's building to ensure an immersive experience where the visitor becomes part of the different environments, experimenting with light, sound, space and motion.

Curated by FACT's director Mike Stubbs, Winter Sparks features the awe-inspiring physics-based works of Canadian artist and composer Alexandre Burton, Dutch artist and academic Edwin van der Heide, and Spain-based Bosch & Simons, known for their complex 'music machines'.

A full programme of events around the Winter Sparks exhibition, including artist performances on the opening day will be announced in the coming months.

Noisy Table is the first project and the launch of the FACT Connects programme, which is committed to reaching out to local artists, musicians, organisations and independent businesses, allowing their presence to be felt in the FACT building.

Created by artist Will Nash, Noisy Table is programmed with a library of digitalinstruments and samples. The vibrations created when the ball hits the table are turned into sounds, which are then broadcast live back into the game. Buttons at either end of the table allow players to scroll through the library and change the sounds.

Nash describes Noisy Table as "an alter-table-tennis experience" that breaks down traditional barriers of art. He says: "People can feel intimidated when they are asked to join in by an artist, but they don't even think about that with table tennis. They just pick up the bat and start playing."

It will launch on December 6 with live music and DJs, and a 'battle of the bands' ping pong tournament will run while the table is in situ. In association with Bido Lito! magazine, eight local bands will take part in customising the table and competing against each other.

Noisy Table will be at FACT from 12pm to 6pm daily (11am to 6pm on Saturdays). Outside of these times, it can still be used if players bring their own bats and balls.

The attic workshop of the first hero of the British Industrial Revolution, the engineer James Watt, will be opened up to visitors as part of a new permanent Science Museum exhibition, James Watt and our world: opening on 23 March 2011. Accompanied by a new gallery of previously unseen objects and innovative multimedia, the exhibition will present a vivid portrait of the working life, ingenuity and character of the first mechanical engineer to be propelled to international fame and spoken of in the same breath as national heroes like Isaac Newton and William Shakespeare.

When Watt died in 1819, his workshop at his home near Birmingham, was locked and its contents left undisturbed as an ‘industrial shrine’. Then, in 1924, the complete workshop, including its door, window, skylight, floorboards and 6,500 objects used or created by Watt, were carefully removed and transported to the Science Museum. Although the workshop has previously been displayed at the Museum, visitors have never been invited inside until now. The vast majority of its contents, once hidden within drawers, on shelves and under piles of tools and papers are now revealed. The new display sets Watt’s life and work alongside his iconic early steam engines which line the Museum’s Energy Hall.

James Watt was seen by contemporaries as the founder of the Industrial Revolution. His improved engine meant that steam could be used everywhere, not just in coal mines, boosting output in breweries, potteries and textile mills. It drove Britain’s factories, pumped its mines and helped start a long surge in prosperity.

Watt was the first engineer to be honoured by a statue in Westminster Abbey and was even called ’the greatest benefactor of the human race’. On his death, the workshop became a place of pilgrimage for historians. His biographer J.P. Muirhead, wrote, the ‘garret and all its mysterious contents…seemed still to breathe of the spirit that once gave them life and energy’.

This exhibition puts Watt in the context of Britain’s emergence as the first industrial nation. Watt played a pivotal role in these events which opened the road to the consumer society of today... He was perhaps the first ‘scientific entrepreneur’, adept at ‘turning science into money’ and using his skills to generate wealth in a longstanding partnership with entrepreneur Matthew Boulton.

Watt’s workshop is packed with a bewildering array of objects including the world’s oldest circular saw, parts for flutes and violins he was making and even the oldest surviving pieces of sandpaper. The exhibition will also include a roller press developed by Watt to copy letters, a forerunner of the photocopier, and a device used to mint and standardise the size of coins for the first time, developed for the Royal Mint.

One of the key objects of the exhibition is Watt’s original 1765 model for the first separate condenser - in effect the greatest single improvement to the steam engine ever made. This unassuming brass cylinder, thought to be one of the most significant objects in engineering history, was only discovered at the Science Museum in the 1960’s – lying under Watt’s workbench. The object remained unrecognised until research by the Museum revealed its identity.

Ben Russell, Curator of Mechanical Engineering, at the Science Museum, said “I am delighted to see Watt’s Workshop given a prominent place again at the Science Museum. To Victorians, the workshop was a mystical retreat and we are hoping that visitors will be similarly enthralled and inspired today. It’s fascinating that we still don’t know the exact purpose of every item in the workshop and we will continue to research this. It was both a functioning workshop and a personal museum of things from his entire life which he had kept, perhaps out of sentiment, but also in case they might come in handy.”

Andrew Nahum, Principal Curator of Technology & Engineering at the Science Museum, said “The extraordinary thing about Watt’s story is that it represents the crucial moment at which industry took off and transformed our lives. In the 19th century, Watt’s improvements to the steam engine and the industry it drove was claimed as a powerful contribution to British strength and to Wellington’s defeat of Napoleon. Watt became a new kind of ‘industrial hero’. Today, Britain’s commerce no longer runs on steam and Watt is perhaps less well known so we are pleased to be celebrating his engineering genius once more.”

As a mark of their contribution, James Watt and his business partner Matthew Boulton will be portrayed on the Bank of England’s forthcoming new £50 banknotes. In 1797 Boulton manufactured all Britain’s coins for the Bank with his new steam-powered machinery.

As Bank of England Governor, Mervyn King, commented when he announced their planned inclusion on the note, “So many of the advantages society now enjoys are due to the vital role of engineering and the brilliance of people such as Boulton and Watt, whose development and refinement of steam engines gave an incredible boost to the efficiency of industry.”

The exhibition is supported by The DCMS/Wolfson Museums & Galleries Improvement Fund, with additional support from The Pilgrim Trust and the Helen and Geoffrey de Freitas Charitable Trust.